- The United States has delayed the start of its offensive
against Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden, in retaliation for the terrorist
strikes in New York and Washington, because of a dramatic turnaround of
Arab support in the Middle East, DEBKAfile 's Gulf and Washington sources
report.
-
- Saturday afternoon, it became clear that events in Riyadh
had dealt the final deathblow to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell's
failed efforts to create an Arab front to bolster the Bush administration's
world war on terror.
-
- The reason for King Fahd secret exit from Saudi Arabia,
followed by a large royal party, is believed by our most reliable sources
to be a palace revolution sparked by differences in the royal family over
support for the US offensive against Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden's terror
network and other rogue targets. King Fahd and his Sudeiri faction,
including
defense minister Sultan, were in favor of letting the US place assault
forces in forward bases on Saudi soil; the conservative, religious Crown
Prince Abdullah, who runs the kingdom since King Fahd became ill, overruled
him, backed by the religious establishment.
-
- As a result, Saudi Arabia refused to let the US use the
kingdom's new combined air operations command center at Prince Sultan Air
Base near Riyadh, after Air Force Lt. Gen Charles Wald had been dispatched
to the base earlier this week, to take command of US air forces assigned
to the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
-
- His mission was to run the air war from the new,
sophisticated
air base opened this summer, a base linked to Al Dhafra in the United Arab
Emirates and Seeb in the Sultanate of Oman. The Saudi base was also to
have been the central command post not only for the 175 aircraft already
based in the region for patrolling south Iraq's no-flight zone, but also
for directing attacks from other bases in the region in the new war
offensive.
-
- When General Wald landed in Saudi Arabia with his top
aides on Tuesday, September 18, he was told he had no command base. That
was when the feuding inside the royal house over its role in the American
war against terrorism reached its climax. The monarch's defeat in the
argument
inside the palace was apparently the main reason for his abrupt departure
the next day, Wednesday, September 19.
-
- The Pentagon has since then been casting about for
replacement
bases of operation and holding up the onset of the scheduled US
campaign.
-
- DEBKAfile 's military sources believe that one of General
Wald's options for his command post is the Bahrain. Some of the fighter
craft due to have been based in Saudi Arabia have been moved to Incerlik,
the big air base in South Turkey, after Anakara made all its bases
available
for the American war effort, and the Uzbek military airport of Tuzel, 15
km. from Tashkent. Large-scale air and commando forces also landed Saturday
in Tadjikistan, on the border of Afghanistan.
-
- The American forces are now laboring to catch up with
their schedule for the operation.
-
- The upset in Riydah also sent the Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat racing to Riydah to meet Crown Prince Abdullah and update
his own strategy with the turn of events in the royal house. DEBKAfile
's Palestinian experts expect Arafat to turn tail and back out of the
accommodations
he broached under US and European pressure - including his commitment to
a ceasefire.
-
- According to DEBKAfile 's Washington sources, the Bush
administration realizes it has been let down by the Arab world, chiefly
the Saudis and President Mubarak of Egypt, in its first steps to launch
an international campaign to defeat world terrorism. It will go ahead,
but not forget in a hurry. Saudis in Flight 22 September A.M.
-
- King Fahd Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia has been secretly
flown out of the kingdom to his palace in Geneva, Switzerland. DEBKAfile
reports this breaking news exclusively from its Gulf and Middle East
sources.
The royal mobile hospital fitted aboard Boeing 757 HZ-HMED landed in the
private VIP section of Geneva airport Wednesday afternoon, September 19.
A palace conclave led by Crown Prince Abdullah, who effectively rules the
kingdom, decided to remove the chronically ailing monarch to safety,
fearing
he might be stranded in the middle of a military crisis arising from the
impending US offensive in the region.
-
- The royal hospital plane was accompanied by another craft
of the royal flight carrying the king's family and entourage.
-
- The possibility of a major terrorist attack on the royal
palaces being sparked by the outbreak of hostilities was also taken into
account in Riyadh. A group of princes was therefore carried to a safe place
in the additional fleet of 10 royal aircraft that ferried members of the
Saudi royal family to Geneva. More than a dozen Mercedes waited on the
tarmac of Geneva International Airport to collect the royal
arrivals.
-
- According to DEBKAfile's sources, the Saudi royal
airlift,
which began Tuesday night, September 18, is still in progress. Two more
private royal planes are expected in the VIP section of Geneva airport
Saturday.
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|